Hearts and Minds is an online course about health and wellness that was developed by NAMI National. The course is totally free of charge. Hearts and Minds is about how important your physical health and wellness is when you are trying to gain or regain a full mental health recovery. You must be fully well, in body, mind and spirit.

The NAMI Hearts and Minds Program is available from the NAMI website. It can be used individually or in a group. All you need is the ability to watch YouTube videos, and download a PDF or two. You can choose whether to print off the PDF or not. Because there are some pages that require you to fill in answers, it can be easier to just print them off, but it's not necessary. If you don't have access to a printer, remember that libraries, treatment centers, clubhouses and drop-in centers often have printers and affordable prices per page. You can also keep the answers in a notebook or on a piece of paper. Having the booklet in PDF means that what you download will look the same as it does when you see it on your computer screen.

If you want to do the NAMI Hearts and Minds Program in a group, you can download the curriculum and print it off for everyone in the group. You can share the videos in the group. An easier way may be to order a facilitator's DVD from NAMI. This way everything is easily available and the movies can be more easily watched on a DVD player and a TV, if that is the equipment that you have available. Also on the DVD is a facilitator's guide to help make class learning easier. The participant's manual can be downloaded or ordered as a booklet.

If you don't have the money for the DVD, and you want to run a group, don't let the money part stop you. Everything truly is available online: the course videos, the participant booklet and the facilitator's guide.

If you don't have the money for the DVD or the participant's booklet, don't let the money part stop you there either. Everything is available and NAMI truly wants you to use this course. That's why it was placed online.

What's great about the NAMI Hearts and Minds Program is that it helps you make progress in bite size chunks. Whatever you choose to do, and however quickly you choose to do it, is up to you. There is a page about goal setting that you can fill out after you print it off. Then you can put the goal sheet in a place where seeing it will help you remember to follow through. This is especially helpful if improving your health is part of your person-entered plan.

One of the reasons NAMI launched Hearts and Minds is because people who happen to have a mental illness or psychiatric diagnosis are dying 25 years earlier than people who don't have a mental illness, due to “modifiable risk factors.”

Modifiable risk factors are things we do, behaviors or habits we have that we can change. Hearts and Minds gives information that can help you make a decision about what might be a good place to start a journey towards better health. It's not necessary to change everything at once. There is additional information about what modifiable risk factors are, and some ways to deal with them on the NAMI website.

There are additional resources in the Hearts and Minds booklet and in the downloadable PDF. The two are exactly the same in terms of content.

Any medication information in this course is done by an independent pharmacist and there is no pharma funding supporting the NAMI Hearts and Minds Program.

NAMI Michigan would love to know if you are using or have used the Hearts and Minds online course. You can call them at (800) 331-4264.